1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to crushers for rock and other materials and particularly to portable crushers that will effectively pulverize materials placed thereon.
2. Prior Art
A wide variety of crushers have been proposed in the past. Many of these crushers have special applications in the mining industry. Generally the devices are physically large and quite expensive and it is usually necessary to bring rock to be crushed to the machine.
Field geologists frequently need to have even small rock samples analyzed so they often send such samples to a laboratory capable of making such anaylsis. The rock must be crushed to be properly analyzed and the laboratory generally charges an extra fee if the crushing is accomplished at the laboratory. Also, shipping charges can be reduced if the rock is pulverized before shipping. Consequently it is desirable that the field geologist have access to a rock crusher in the field so that rock to be analyzed can be immediately crushed. This, then may result in significant cost savings to the geologist.
Others also have need for crushers and pulverizers that are adaptable to either large scale or smaller portable sizing. For example there is a continuing need throughout the world for such devices to crush grains.
A number of crushers proposed in the past have used motor driven rotors with swinging hammers inside housing to break up and crush rock placed in the housing. Such crushers are shown, for example, in U.S Pat. Nos. 1,013,527, 1,424,922, 1,490,368, 1,666,124, 1,721,821, 1,733,637 and 2,169,684. The crushers shown in the foregoing patents disclose the use of a variety of swinging elements. Other arrangements of flail type swing elements and means for attaching them to rotors or drums are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,687,093, 2,573,227 and 3,608,842 and U.S. Pat. Nos., 4,172,481 and 4,222,418 show lengths of chain used as flails mounted to rotatable drums.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,783,794 and 4,227,840 teach the use of a Chain Saw Frame and Drive Assembly to support and drive rotatable tools for drilling and U.S Pat. No. 2,821,216 teaches chain flails attached to a chain saw blade for use in clearing vegetation. The present invention comprises a crusher or pulverizer that may be attached to a conventional chain saw and frame and that uses the motor and drive apparatus of the chain saw to drive the unit as a crusher or pulverizer. The device is simple to handle and provides an inexpensive, hand held, portable material crusher that is readily available to geologists and others in need of such equipment. It has also been found that the apparatus of the invention can be readily constructed in diverse sizes to handle desired volumes of material and that a wide variety of materials can be crushed or pulverized. Thus, while the present invention is ideally suited for use as a relatively small unit, that can be attached to a power unit, such as a drive unit of a chain saw it can also be made larger and having its own power unit.
To the best of my knowledge, however, there has not heretofore been known an inexpensive, easily used and repaired crusher that is readily adaptable for use on a larger scale and capable of handling a large range of materials while still being adapted for use with a hand held drive unit. Neither has heretofore been a unit incorporating a wind tunnel through which crushed material is moved over a sizing screen through which material crushed to size will pass.